


The Other Earth

by Fighting_for_Creativity



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: (OFC and Winter do not have a main role), Alien Biology, Alien Culture, Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Amnesia, Angst, Angst and Tragedy, Avengers still being Avengers, Cross-Posted on Tumblr, F/M, Family, Fluff and Crack, Happy Ending, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, M/M, Mirror Worlds - Freeform, Multi, Mystical Creatures, Presumed Dead, bakery Au elements, child named Winter, oc child - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-31
Updated: 2020-07-31
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:07:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,699
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25632550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fighting_for_Creativity/pseuds/Fighting_for_Creativity
Summary: Bucky had a cat, had a job at a local bakery, and some odd jobs here and there. At night, he would look in the sky, trying to figure out the constellations, seeing the stars differently than he faintly remembered. At the same time on one of those stars far away, a star named Earth, Tony Stark held his baby boy, whispering, “One day, you’ll know you’re the world.[…]”~~~~~(Full summary in the notes. It had too many letters)
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Natasha Romanov, James "Bucky" Barnes/Natasha Romanov/Tony Stark, James "Bucky" Barnes/Tony Stark, Natasha Romanov/Tony Stark, others
Comments: 2
Kudos: 10
Collections: Bucky Barnes Bingo 2020, StarkBucksBingo2020





	The Other Earth

**Author's Note:**

> It started as a summary for the BuckyBarnesBingoParty game: prompt summary.  
> Prompts: 
> 
> @rebelmeg : pet fic, bakery AU, crack  
> @Magica: Stars, “Oh, a wise guy, eh?”, chicken soup  
> @MadilyneHale: Lies, Baby bottles, “These aren’t mine”  
> @LLightz: Lake, Mythical creature, Parachute  
> @dreaminglypeach Alcohol, dystopia, Nat. 
> 
> I fell in love with it and now you guys have to suffer.  
> Here the full summary:  
>  _  
> Bucky had loved the dog next door back when they were kids. He had tried to argue with his ma over and over and over that he would take good care of a pet if he ever got one. But money was tight, and his sisters’ and Steve's health were more important than having a pet. So one of the things Bucky did once he remembered and was 'fine' was looking for a dog. He hadn't expected to find a cat, but he loved her dearly.  
>  Bucky was stable for a while, had a cat, had a job at a local bakery, and some odd jobs here and there. At night, he would look in the sky, trying to figure out the constellations, seeing the stars differently than he faintly remembered.  
> At the same time on one of those stars far away, a star named Earth, Tony Stark held his baby boy, feeding him stardust from a bottle and whispering, "One day, you’ll know you're the world. One day, you’ll know you are a wise guy. But wisdom comes with age and until then you are just smart."  
> Natalia was with him, standing in the background watching them, knowing things she shouldn't. She had tried to drown her foresight with alcohol, but it never lasted. Flashes of their world, their planet destroyed, burned, and scourged had plagued her since she was a small child.  
> "These aren't mine" she had said over and over when the doctors viewed her mind when BARF showed Tony her innermost secrets.  
> Besides Tony, everyone judged her though. Believing her to be cruel and wanting this. But she didn't. The boy in Tony's arms was proof of that. On silent soles, she made her way into the kitchen to cook the chicken soup the way her mother taught her.  
> A side glance at the parachute they had rediscovered. The parachute of their friend and lost lover. It had been found floating on a lake not far away. And... If the myths were to be believed, it led to a world beyond. To a star far away. A star Tony was looking at. A star Bucky hopefully now lived on, amongst the mythical creatures, cats. _
> 
>   
> #+#+#  
> I will attempt to clarify the world I'm building with the next few chapters, but I rarely build my own world so if something stays unclear and I specifically won't tell you guys it's on purpose for the story, feel free to ask.
> 
> \---
> 
> ###  **Bingo fills**
> 
> BBB (250words requiered):  
> Title: The Other Earth - A Whisper In The Night  
> Collaborator: Fighting_for_Creativity/J_Gun_i (and the guys giving the prompts)  
> Square Filled: K5 Great Depression  
> Ship/Main Pairing: Nat/Bucky/Tony  
> Rating: Mature (may changes in the future to explicit)  
> Major Tags/Warnings: Amnesia, presumed dead, Family, mystical creatures, slight crack (later), bakery Au elements, mention of alcohol abuse
> 
> StarkBucksBingo( 350 words requirement):  
> Title: The Other Earth- A Whisper In The Night  
> Collaborator Name: Fighting_for_Creativity  
> Square Filled: B5- Didn't Know They Were Dating  
> Ship/Main Pairing: WinterIronWidow  
> Rating: Mature  
> Major Tags & Triggers: Amnesia, presumed dead, Family, mystical creatures, slight crack (later), bakery Au elements, mention of alcohol abuse

The reassuring click sound of his lock opening as he turned his key let Bucky smile. He had a couple of jobs a day and the city he lived in- Bucharest- had a burglar problem, or maybe every city had that in the cheaper neighborhoods. His lock still being intact meant that his things were still where they belonged. A low meow greeted him when Bucky stepped inside.

“I’m back, Alpine. Gimme just a few moments,” he said while shrugging out of his jacket and pulling his boots off, “I’ll renew your water and give you fresh food. ‘That is wonderful, Bucky! Thank you. How was your day at the bakery Bucky?’ Why thank you Alpine! It was stressful but the old lady from three streets down insisted on tipping me.”

During his little monologue, Bucky made his way to the kitchen, refreshing the water, rinsing the bowl before giving his beloved white cat fresh water. Then he gave her food and continued to tell her of his day, despite Alpine lazily blinking at him and doing the equivalent of a shrug before she dug into her food.

Smiling softly Bucky observed her for a moment before he made himself something to eat as well. While he prepared and then ate his spaghetti, he thought about his current life and the still amiss memories. Just yesterday he had remembered that his friend’s name had been ‘Stevie’ and that the blond had lived with Bucky, his ma, and his sisters for the most part of their childhood. Why that was though, Bucky still didn’t know.

What he had compiled so far was all safely stored away in a red leather-bound book. The book had a spider-like web in black, and the book ribbon was golden intertwined with a cerulean blue. Somehow the book called out to Bucky so he bought it. After his purchase, he had stared at the thick pages for quite a while until he got a memory of a faint male chuckle. He had scrambled to catch that sound, to describe it with every word he had relearned over the time he had been here, but it faded too fast for him to grab. 

The first page in the book was filled.

More followed and now he had already written about half the pages. Sometimes it were scrambled notes, dreams fading too fast to note down. Sometimes it were memories so vivid that Bucky could detail every aspect of them. Such a memory was of him wanting a dog, after spending time with Rumko, the dog from his family’s neighbors.

Bucky had loved the dog next door back when they were kids. He had tried to argue with his ma over and over and over that he would take good care of a pet if he ever got one. But money was tight, and his sisters’ and Steve's health were more important than having a pet.

That had been another, rather saddening memory. Knowing that his family and he had struggled to survive on a daily basis recalling hushed conversations between his sisters about marrying a jerk just because he would pay for their lives and even give some good coins to his ma for them- yeah those memories he could have done without.

The memory of Rumko, though, was one of the happiest he had. Rumko had been a long-haired beast of a dog. He had jumped on Bucky whenever they crossed paths and they had played and romped around a lot when Bucky was young. Sometimes when his old neighbors, a greying couple, she with blue eyes and him with brownish ones, both always had a kind smile and a kind word of advice for him, were too ill to go with their dog, Bucky and later Steve would do it for them.

Mrs. Lie? Leg? Lee?- Bucky still didn’t remember perfectly- would bake a pie for all of them and Bucky’s sisters would squeal in delight when he brought them a piece. All in all, the brunet’s memories regarding a pet were overly fond.

So one of the things Bucky did once he remembered and was ' _fine_ ' was looking for a dog. He hadn't expected to find a cat, but he loved her dearly. 

There was no excuse as to how he found himself with Alpine, but he wouldn’t wish it any other way anymore. Sure the white furball was stubborn as they came and tended to ignore any and all attempts of Bucky to somewhat train her, beside the litter box, but she had a sixth sense for how Bucky was feeling and was often aware of it even before he himself was.

One time, when Bucky had thought himself to feel fine, he came back from work, got Alpine her food, and then sat on the couch. At the very next moment, Alpine sprang on his lap, leaving her food for the moment, and pawed at his chest gently. For a second Bucky stared until he felt the first hot tear running down his cheek.

Alpine had stayed with him til no more tears came and he fell asleep. 

After that time, Bucky tended to buy a little extra for his friend, and she kept close to him during the night, for the night was when he often felt a strange longing and sadness.

  
  


In the broad daylight, it was easy to forget that he didn’t belong here. Sure, Bucky had made some acquaintances. And yes, Bucky was most popular with the gals and some fellas as well, but the elder folk were mostly wary of him. Something about the way Bucky had been found made them uneasy. Honestly, Bucky couldn’t blame them; he had heard the whispers.

Apparently, he had been found bleeding out by a lake, left arm strongly mangled and thought to be a case for the undertaker. Suddenly though, he had recovered nearly completely, the only issues left were his memory and part of the dexterity in his left arm. A few shallow scars are the visible souvenirs of that.

So yes, Bucky could understand why they were wary. What he didn’t get was why the younger ones, weren’t and why Mrs. Halász insisted on hiring him for every kind of odd job there was, even in the beginning. After a few weeks, people talked about how well he worked and how much he could handle and thus he managed to get enough payment to rent himself a small apartment, pay off the debt for his hospital bills, and get new clothes and everything a human needed to live.

So all in all, his current situation could be summarized as stable - he had a cat, a job at the bakery, and a few odd jobs here and there - and financially well off.

That wasn’t _the all_ in life for him though. Bucky was searching for his memories desperately. At night, he would look in the sky, trying to figure out the constellations, seeing the stars differently than he faintly remembered. 

Today was one of those nights he went outside, climbing the fire escape upwards to the roof with Alpine perched on his shoulders. Bucky arrived on top and took a few steps to the center. Then he flopped down, sitting cross-legged and throwing his head back, gaze fixed on the sky. He felt how Alpine settled on his lap and absentmindedly sank his fingers in her fur.

The stars seemed to twinkle brighter whenever he looked at them, seemingly wanting to lure him in. In the silent moments Bucky spent on the roof, it was as if the stars tried to tell him pieces of his past. A soft scoff left Bucky’s lips. ‘ _As if. Only because you are hopelessly longing for_ **_something_ ** _doesn’t mean that the stars will try to help you.’_

Rationally Bucky knew that it was nonsense and stupid to believe otherwise, to think that the key for everything was out there in space. That the one star his gaze was constantly drawn to, held any significance to his memories. But somehow, deep down, Bucky couldn’t help feeling his heart throbbing to the beat of said star’s twinkling. Whenever the brunet concentrated on that particular star, he started to lowly hum under his breath.

A melody so ingrained in his flesh and soul, even his spotted memory recalled it the very first time Bucky had seen that star. While he hummed, Alpine would purr and sometimes Bucky thought he could hear _that_ man’s voice, and a woman's laugh, and then his head would throb in pain.

But his heart… Well, Bucky’s heart would clench in yearning.

\-----

Little could Bucky have known, that while he watched the sky, with longing in his heart, another brunet did the same.

At the same time but far away, on one of those stars, another star named Earth, Tony Stark stood on his balcony, surveying the land beneath before raising his gaze into the stars. In his arms, he held his baby boy, Winter. The boy was named after the season they had lost their third. Despite the loss they had experienced, Tony couldn’t feel more joy when he looked down again, grey steel eyes meeting with his golden ones. The babe made grabby hands, and Tony chuckled softly. 

Holding Winter carefully against his chest, Tony fed him stardust from a bottle and whispered, "One day, you’ll know you're the world. One day, you’ll know you are a wise guy. But wisdom comes with age and until then you are just smart."

Because in Tony’s mind, there was no doubt that his child was at least as smart as him. It was in their blood. His father had been smarter than his grandfather who had already been smarter than his father, the founder of the Stark Space Travel line. Albeit their planet being highly advanced, technology-wise, their whole race had a glaring design fault. Their children needed stardust to survive and nurture. That itself was not a problem. The real trouble lay in the fact that so far only four stars had been discovered which held the right concentration of all needed elements.

So, no matter what your life brought you if you wanted to have a child, you needed to come back to one of those four stars. Tony had been born on Earth, like every other Stark. His mother, Maria, though had been from Xantha, his Dam, Peggy, from Asrir. So his parents hadn’t been sure where Tony would be raised best but soon found that the brunet got most nutrients from the stardust of Earth.

Wiggling startled Tony out of his reverie, and he adjusted his grip on Winter. “Whoa! Watch it, little man. Don’t wanna make your mother mad by dropping you!”

The baby looked at him, blinked and then chuckled himself. Tony made sure that his boy settled again and was safely tucked in his arms when his eyes returned to the sky. ‘ _One day, I will remember your name. Your name and your face and everything else about you. Right now I only have your voice and the sweet things you told us. Right now I only know despite not remembering, that Winter has your eyes. And one day, dear, I shall remember so I can tell our child everything about his Mod._ ’

\---

  
  


Natalia was with them, standing in the background watching them, knowing things she shouldn't. 

She felt her own sorrow echoed in Tony’s heart. She heard the silent screams of her husband at night. She felt the confusion, the search for his Mod whenever Winter looked around. The child felt that there was a person missing. She just hoped her precious boy wouldn’t suffer as she had.

  
  


She hoped devoutly that her own curse wasn’t her boy's burden to share. Her own second mother, Dam Vanka, had pleaded with Natalia for forgiveness when she had been still a little child. Only a few years later and after her Dam’s death did she understand what she meant.

Natalia had tried to drown her foresight with alcohol, but it never lasted. Flashes of their world, their planet destroyed, burned, and scourged had plagued her since she was a small child. 

A dystopia of pain and burning bodies. A world where they all destroyed each other. Foul soil and no more stardust to feed the babies. Women and men bare, even the three DNA’s not enough to fertilize an egg and have a child. She had always believed that she’d never find a semblance of happiness. Then she had met Tony and Clint and Phil and Steve and Bucky.

Bucky and Tony had already been in something. No one could answer her what kind of bond those two had forged and how it came to be, not even Rhodey and Steve, the respective best friends of Tony and Bucky. Later, way later, she found out that a common love for pets had gotten them to talk. Then, in the secret of a joined bedroom, under the covers with eyelids heavy from sleep, both had confessed to her that they’ve been prisoners of the Kree at the same time. 

That they had done things together, just to survive, which they regretted with every fiber of their heart. But it also had united them. A few weeks after their confession Natalia had confessed how she had always seen things. How she always knew things, bad things would happen before they did. How she had killed a man because she knew he would kill his wives and his children.

But how those visions had not been hers. Neither her ideas, never her wishes, nor thoughts.

"These aren't mine" she had said over and over when the doctors viewed her mind, they never believed her. She had said it still when BARF showed Tony her innermost secrets. Unlike the doctors, they believed her. They believed **in** her. Bucky and Tony supported her, made her feel fine and alive for the first time in so long. How could she not have fallen in love?

These days though, even her other friends looked strangely at her.

Besides Tony, everyone judged her. Believing her to be cruel and to want the visions, the destruction. But she didn't. The boy in Tony's arms was proof of that. On silent soles, she made her way into the kitchen to cook the chicken soup the way her mother taught her. 

On her way there she detoured to the gear room. They might be benched for as long as Winter needed to be fed Stardust on an hourly basis, but that didn’t mean Natalia would let their equipment get dusty. She entered the spacious room, lights turning on automatically thanks to JARVIS.

Purposeful she strode towards her Black Widow bites and checked their charging. Then, without asking, JARVIS provided her information on the repair status of the latest Iron Man suit. Another reason they were benched, the real reason, to be honest, had been Tony’s near-suicidal maneuver the past few missions before he was injured badly enough to need the cradle.

Selective amnesia had been the result.

Natalia sighed deeply. Not long before that mission, they had rediscovered a parachute- glancing to the side her gaze found it. The parachute of their friend and lost lover. It had been found floating on a lake not far away. Steve and Rhodey had suggested they all went out for a while, letting Winter see some animals and plants. Natalia had bit her lip, a headache overcoming her as she saw flashes of the same parachute and her precious boy crying. At that moment she hadn’t known what exactly would happen, but she’d known their little excursion wouldn’t end all daisies and roses. 

  
  
Stepping out of the room again Natalia finally went into the kitchen, cooking the soup and thinking, ‘ _If the myths were to be believed, then that lake led to a world beyond. To a star far away. Maybe even the star Tony was looking at. A star Bucky hopefully now lived on, amongst the mythical creatures, cats._ _He always loved animals, and those creatures are said to be one of the most elegant cohabitants for people._ ’

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for the quick betaing, [Purple_ducky00](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Purple_ducky00/pseuds/Purple_ducky00)


End file.
